English Script:
THE REAL FASHION VICTIMS
An investigation conducted by ANIMAL and internationally released
in co-operation with the Anti-Fur Society (USA) , RabbitWise (USA) and Fourrure-Torture (France).
This winter, thousands of us will buy coats, scarves and other clothing
made from it.
As the party season
approaches, many of us will reach for handbags, shoes and other accessories containing it.
It’s on the catwalk
and in the high street, and those involved in producing and selling it say it’s natural and sexy, fashionable and smart.
But this investigation has revealed the shocking and bloody truth
behind fur on sale in many of Portugal’s boutiques and fashion houses.
Working undercover,
investigators from ANIMAL have uncovered a secret yet thriving trade in Portuguese rabbit fur.
For the first time, secret filming has revealed
the entire rabbit fur production process and exposed key individuals behind the trade.
Thousands of animals are being reared in highly
intensive battery-style conditions, subjected to relentless artificial breeding programmes and brutally slaughtered.
Perhaps this winter it’s time to ask : who
are the real fashion victims?
Across Portugal, dozens of specialist farms are
breeding thousands of rabbits for their meat and for their fur.
Some
are little more than cottage industries, housing as few as two hundred animals; others
breed rabbits on an industrial scale and churn out thousands each week for slaughter and processing.
The fur produced by these rabbits supplies both
the Portuguese and international markets.
ANIMAL has learnt that much is exported to China,
via Spain, for cheap processing.
It is then shipped back into Portugal and other
EU states for use in clothing, accessories and other goods.
At the farms visited by investigators, rabbits were
held in appalling conditions in tiny, filthy wire cages, surrounded by their own waste.
They spend their entire miserable lives in these
intensive units, unable to freely move or exhibit natural behaviour.
Rabbits by nature like to dig and to nest –
but these battery crates allow for neither.
Injuries, deformities and mortality rates are high.
At this farm in the Lourinh� region, investigators
accompanied staff as they undertook their feeding duties – a disturbing number of animals had died overnight.
The breeding process for rabbits reared for their
meat and their fur is brutal and unrelenting.
At many farms, artificial insemination techniques
are used to ensure maximum productivity.
Females can give birth to as many as ten babies
every forty five days; some farms hold as many as 2000 female breeding rabbits. The number of reared animals is immense.
Animals kept for breeding are housed in even smaller
battery units – in some cases they are virtually unable to turn around.
After being transferred to holding – or fattening
– cages, rabbits are typically sent for slaughter when they are as little as six weeks old.
Some animals bred purely for their fur are matured
until four or five months old, to ensure the quality of the fur.
The fur from these
animals can command a higher price on the international market.
ANIMAL investigators witnessed the loading of this
typical consignment of over a thousand rabbits for slaughter.
Rabbits were crammed into specially designed plastic
crates – in some cases literally thrown in – before being trucked to a nearby slaughter facility.
The owner of this slaughterhouse near Bombarral
is a major supplier of Portuguese rabbit fur.
He claimed to produce as many as a hundred thousand
furs a month.
This dealer revealed to investigators his plans
to further increase fur production by a hundred thousand units a month, doubling its current production.
During a tour of the facility, he explained how
furs are salted at the facility to help preserve them.
The furs are then stored in special buildings before
being sold onto a third party for export and processing.
After arriving from the breeding farms, rabbits
are crudely placed onto a conveyer belt for stunning.
Hanging from hooks, the animals have their throats
slit.
Many appear to remain alive after this brutal and
harrowing process – rabbits were seen writhing around after being cut.
In the production cycle that follows, the fur is
mechanically separated from the carcasses which will be used for meat.
This unprecedented ANIMAL investigation offers –
for the first time – a rare glimpse into Portugal’s role in the secretive international fur trade.
The majority of the rabbits seen in this film are
reared for their fur and for their meat.
By refusing to wear rabbit fur or any other fur,
in any form, you will be making a central decision to help end the cruelty of which these animals are victims. At the same
time, by not consuming rabbit meat, or any other meat, that will also be a key decision that will vitally help to reduce the
number of animal suffering and killing that these bloody industries cause.
This winter, ask yourself: who are the real fashion
victims?
